March 5, 2009 Issue
If You Can Walk, You Can Dance
Ballroom Dancing in the High Country
Carol Pollard was taking lessons at Robin and Andy Lane’s Northwestern Dance Studio, attending the social dance for students on the first Saturday of every month. But the dancers felt that once a month wasn’t enough time to practice the waltzes, foxtrots, swings, rumbas and cha chas they had learned in class.
“I wish we had another opportunity to practice,” group members said to one another one day at the end of the dance.
“Well, let’s do something about that,” said Pollard. “I’ll organize it.”
So Pollard—a member of the Boone Shag Club, which meets every Tuesday in Blowing Rock at the Meadowbrook Inn—approached the management at the Meadowbrook Inn to find out if they could fit another dance group into their schedule.
The result of her enterprise is the High Country Ballroom Dance Club, which meets regularly on Sunday nights at the Meadowbrook Inn.
“To join, you just turn up and pay your $5 cover charge to walk through the door and have a good time,” Pollard said.
The club had its first event in October 2008 and has had “close to 50” people attending during the winter months, said Pollard. The fledgling club, though, could easily turn into something much bigger during the summer.
Pollard asked wherever she went if people she met were interested in ballroom dancing and now “I have about 150 on my mailing list,” she said. “The Floridians are big dancers.”
The mailing list is how social dancers can be sure of the exact night the dance will take place each month, because it can change from its third Sunday of the month slot.
The evening starts at 7:00 p.m. when Robin and Andy Lane teach a beginners’ lesson. Following are two hours of dancing to music provided by deejay George Brown, who plays “a nice assortment of big band songs, including requests,” said Pollard.
The Meadowbrook’s bar is open for refreshments during the evening.
Ballroom dance—also known as social dance—is probably the most romantic type of dancing ever invented. For most people, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire symbolize what it’s all about.
Pollard herself, from Burnley in Lancashire, England, began dancing when she was 5 years old. She danced competitively at the Mecca of ballroom dancing, Blackpool, England, where the world ballroom dancing championships take place each year.
Dancing is great exercise, but it is much more than that.
“It’s a nice opportunity to dress up a bit,” said Pollard. “We have had people come in tuxes and long dresses. The dress is informal to semi-formal.
“Everybody helps everybody else, and we make sure that people dance around with others,” Pollard said, explaining that this ensures that any singles who turn up are not left out.
“The dancers are all really nice people. We have a lovely time,” she said.
For more information, email Pollard at tassielassie@hotmail.com.
Regular Ballroom Dance Lessons at Northwestern Dance
“If you can walk, you can dance,” Ginger Rogers said to Fred Astaire early in Swing Time, when Fred, whose character in the movie was already a great dancer and needs no lessons, is pretending to want to learn just to get to know the teacher.
And every Monday, in a studio reminiscent of the one in that 1930s movie, aspirants to this most joyful of pastimes assemble on a beautiful wooden floor to start learning where to put their feet so they can move around magically.
The beginner’s class for the waltz at the Northwestern Dance Studios above the Oil Exchange on Highway 105 in Boone may have begun this past Monday, March 2, said Robin Lane, owner and teacher of the studios along with her husband Andy, but that shouldn’t deter people from taking their first steps if they want—there is always a review of the previous week’s lesson.
Robin and Andy teach one of the dances at 7:00 p.m. before each month’s scheduled event of the High Country Ballroom Dance Club, which started up in October 2008 and meets at the Meadowbrook Inn in Blowing Rock.
The Lanes spend a month of Mondays with beginners on each dance, such as the fox trot, the rumba, the American tango and the cha cha, and they spend two months on the swing.
Thursday evenings belong to the intermediate class, which takes each dance on a monthly basis from where the Monday evening class left off.
For more information, call 828-262-3262.
Community Interest
News & Notes
Events
Arts & Entertainment
